


First Steps

by marzbarz



Series: it takes a village (or a pirate crew) [2]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-20
Updated: 2014-02-20
Packaged: 2018-01-13 05:09:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1213930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marzbarz/pseuds/marzbarz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Luffy learns how to walk.</p>
            </blockquote>





	First Steps

It didn’t take long for life on the Moby Dick to settle into a new routine once Luffy came on board. Luffy-care was passed from division to division the same way watch and dish duty were passed along, though it seemed to hit the fourth division most often since Thatch revealed he was the oldest of nine and had basically raised half his siblings from birth. Luffy’s crib stayed in Thatch’s room for the first few weeks, but it was moved around as well after the commander started to fall asleep on his feet.

Luffy was a ridiculously cheerful little guy. Most of the crew were orphans or only children and didn’t really know what to do with a baby, but they all agreed that Luffy was so happy all the time it was almost weird. The only time he really cried was when he was hungry, and even then if you noticed the signs and got him a bottle you could avoid any tears completely.

Between the various talents of the crew members, Luffy gained a nice set of baby toys. The one he loved the most was a fluffy brown bear that Izou made for him; he always had it, and the easiest way to get him to take a nap was to give him the bear to cuddle and cover him up with a blanket (Thatch bought Izou some nice sake as a thank-you).

The only real difference in life on the Moby Dick for the first several months after Luffy arrived was that they kept to safe waters, staying near their territories and sending out small forces to clear up any issues on their other islands. Everyone was starting to think that raising a baby wouldn’t be that hard after all.

Then Luffy learned how to walk.

* * *

 

It was the first division’s turn on Luffy-duty, and Marco was helping Luffy make a block tower. The eight-month-old liked building simple towers, then rolling through them to knock them over. When he was building, nothing short of food could tear him away. Today was different, though – every time someone walked by, Luffy’s attention snapped to them and he watched them until they were out of sight. Marco had noticed the same thing happening for a few days and figured Luffy was trying to find the secret to walking. He’d been pulling himself up on anything he could reach – furniture, people, even Stefan’s fur – and the whole ship had started baby-proofing a couple shelves higher as a result. Everyone had started helping Luffy learn, holding onto his hands and guiding him around the deck for a couple minutes at a time.

“Hey, Lu,” Marco said, getting up to crouch in Luffy’s line of sight. “Want to give walking another shot, yoi?” Luffy babbled excitedly, reaching up to grab Marco’s outstretched hands, completely forgetting about the blocks. Marco grinned, watching as Luffy pulled himself to his feet, then started to slowly shuffle backwards. Luffy followed, an adorable look of concentration on his face as he put one foot in front of the other.

Together they slowly made it across the width of the deck. Marco transferred Luffy’s grip from his fingers to the railing once they reached it, then took a few long steps back and sat down. Luffy stared at him in confusion for a moment, head cocked to the side, before letting go with one hand and turning himself in a wobbly circle so he was still facing Marco. “Walk over, Luffy, yoi” Marco said gently, making a beckoning motion with his hands. “You can do it. One foot in front of the other, just like a few minutes ago, yoi.”

Luffy didn’t move, staring at something over Marco’s shoulder, and the phoenix saw Thatch approaching out of the corner of his eye. He quickly motioned for all activity on the deck to freeze, not taking his eyes off Luffy; as long as there were people to watch, the baby would be too distracted to give his own legs a shot. Everyone froze and Luffy’s gaze went back to Marco as the baby shuffled forward a step, still holding onto the railing with one hand.

The entire deck of the Moby Dick held its breath as Luffy took one last little shuffle forwards before letting go of the railing. He wobbled a little but kept his balance, then took a step forward. This was quickly followed by two more wobbly strides until it became too much and he landed on his butt and burst into delighted giggles.

Just like that, the silence was broken as everyone on deck erupted into delighted cheers, some of the crew running off to spread the news to everyone who hadn’t seen. Marco scooted over and swept Luffy into his arms, beaming proudly. “Way to go, Luffy!” Luffy babbled happily, then tried to wiggle his way out of Marco’s hug. “Oh, you want to try again, yoi? Sure – here, head for Thatch.” Setting Luffy on his feet facing Thatch, Marco made sure he was balanced before letting go.

“Look at you, walking on your own!” Thatch said, sitting down and stretching his hands out towards Luffy. “Come on, kiddo, you can do it! All the way over, you got this!” Luffy made it several steps before teetering back onto his butt again. This time, he got a determined look on his face and tried to push himself back to his feet. After letting him try a few seconds Marco held out a hand for Luffy to pull himself up with and the baby managed to pull himself up and walk the rest of the way to Thatch before tripping on the cook’s foot and face-planting in his lap. Thatch swept Luffy up into a delighted hug, and Marco took the opportunity to run off and let Oyaji know what had happened. Soon Luffy was making his way towards a grinning Whitebeard, with the rest of the crew spilling out onto the deck to watch.

A party was in full swing by dinner, with Luffy taking steps whenever he felt up to it, though he got tired quickly since he wasn’t used to it yet. Marco was staying sober to take care of the little guy while the rest of the crew got completely smashed in celebration, and was currently sitting in a relatively quiet corner with dinner for both himself and Luffy. “You’d think we wouldn’t throw a huge party for someone far too young to participate, wouldn’t you, yoi” he said, looking down at Luffy with a long-suffering expression.  “But no, the Whitebeard Pirates can’t celebrate anything without drinking at least their weight in booze.” Luffy waved one arm, the other not releasing its death grip on the bottle. “I suppose you’re joining in, since you seem particularly determined to drink your body weight in formula,” Marco mused. “Seriously, is your stomach secretly a black hole or something? This is kind of ridiculous, yoi.”

“Maaaaaaarcoooooooo, you know he’s a D,” Thatch said, sliding an arm around Marco’s shoulders as he flopped into an empty chair next to the pair. “That means food. Loooooots and lots of food. Remember that one time we hung out with Roger’s crew and Roger ate almost as much as half his crew combined?” The cook giggled drunkenly, taking a swig out of the bottle in his hand. “We get that to look forward to! Isn’t that right, munchkin? You’re gonna eat us right out of our ship when you get older.” He reached forward and poked Luffy gently on the forehead. “Gotta eat enough to change the world, don’t you, bubba.”

Luffy flailed in Thatch’s direction with his free hand, still chowing down. “Yeah, you’re gonna shake things up in a big way, kid,” Thatch said fondly before turning to Marco. “You know what first steps means though, right?” When Marco gave him a blank look, Thatch gestured at a doorway dramatically. “Baby gates, Marco. Baby gates. Stairs have become enemy number one for this little guy, so we gotta block them off to make sure he doesn’t fall.”

“Couldn’t we just keep an eye on him, yoi?” Marco asked, already picturing the number of crew members that would trip on a baby gate in any given hour. It wasn’t looking pretty.

Thatch threw back his head and laughed. “Keep an eye on Luffy? Are you serious?” he asked, trying to get himself under control. “You remember when Curiel took his eyes off him for 30 seconds and he rolled under Oyaji’s chair and we couldn’t find him for an hour and a half? Or when Fossa looked away for five seconds and Luffy had rolled halfway across the deck?”

“Alright, alright, bad idea, I get it, yoi,” Marco said, throwing the now-empty bottle at Thatch’s head while Luffy giggled. “So baby gates, and big signs to warn about the baby gates so there are a minimum of injuries when people forget, yoi.” Thatch nodded, wiggling his fingers at Luffy and pulling a ridiculous face, and Marco sighed. “Joy. I’ll tell Oyaji, yoi.”

“Better wait til after the party,” Thatch said, waving his hand at the chaos around them. “Drinking and baby gates are a bad mix. Very bad. And painful.”

Marco gave his friend a strange look, but decided not to comment. Sometimes it was better to let it go. He looked back down at Luffy, who was blinking sleepily, sucking contently on his thumb as he cuddled into Marco’s chest. “Life’s going to get a lot more interesting, isn’t it, yoi,” Marco said softly, standing up to get Luffy to bed. The baby giggled softly, and Marco grinned. Sure, maybe the ship would be that much crazier with a baby now running around underfoot, but Marco wouldn’t trade it for anything.

**Author's Note:**

> So in the Enies Lobby Arc, Luffy learns how to use Soru just by watching Blueno do it a few times. Same idea here – he figures out walking by watching everyone around him do it. I’ve worked with a few kids who learned to walk without ever figuring out crawling, and I figured that’s what Luffy would do, since the pirates aren’t crawling around to demonstrate that for him. Before that he rolled around a lot, because rolling is fun. Also Thatch has absorbed and expanded upon my penchant for using nicknames for small children, so expect to see Luffy get called a wide variety of things that are not his name until he gets to be 6 or 7 and puts his foot down about it.


End file.
